THE TIMES OF ISRAEL Communiy — Editor’s Note: Netanyahu’s Israel * Discover Israeli and Jewish writers, musicians, artists * Podcast preview: Are we getting better?

Dear Community members and Daily Edition readers, In a television interview Tuesday night, Moshe Ya’alon, the ex-Likud defense minister who has long since become one of his former boss Benjamin Netanyahu’s fiercest critics, asserted that the prime minister has handled the coronavirus pandemic abysmally. In Ya’alon’s narrative, Netanyahu sowed unwarranted panic with exaggerated predictions that tens of thousands of Israelis might die, plunged the economy into avoidable meltdown, and failed to organize timely loans and grants for collapsing businesses. As for Israel’s strikingly low death toll relative to most of the developed world, this, according to Ya’alon, is a function of Israel’s Middle Eastern location; nearby states — notably including Greece — have fared better still, he noted, without all the Netanyahu-style panic-mongering. Whatever the merits of Ya’alon’s claims, it seems unlikely that they reflect consensual Israeli public sentiment. The few polls taken in past weeks show significantly rising backing for Likud, and strong support for Netanyahu’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis. In these recent weeks, moreover, Ya’alon’s own anti-Netanyahu bloc has collapsed, with his former Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz having abandoned the effort to oust the prime minister and instead negotiated an agreement for a unity coalition, leaving Ya’alon and his remaining key ally Yair Lapid headed fuming into the opposition. Blue and White MKs Benny Gantz (C) and Moshe Ya’alon (R) at the Vered Yeriho lookout point in the Jordan Valley, January 21, 2020. (Hadas Parush/Flash90) Less than six weeks ago, Gantz, endorsed by 61 MKs, was formally supposed to be mustering a coalition. Today, the Knesset is voting to approve a coalition deal under which Netanyahu will remain prime minister; Gantz, with little leverage, is left hoping that Netanyahu will, as promised, hand over the premiership to him 18 months from now. Having come close to losing power, Netanyahu now holds all the cards. The High Court has rejected all petitions to bar Netanyahu, as an MK under indictment for corruption, from setting up his new government. It has also dismissed all petitions against clauses of the coalition deal, after some of its objections were accepted, though it has intimated it might consider further petitions when some of those clauses become operative. Either way, Netanyahu has nothing much to fear. For now, he is preparing next week to swear in Israel’s first fully-functioning government in more than 16 months — since the Knesset dispersed in December 2018 ahead of the first of three closely fought Netanyahu vs. Gantz elections. In the relatively unlikely event that the judges step in later on, Netanyahu could loudly protest what he has already said he would regard as judicial overreach that counters the will of the electorate, call new elections with every prospect of victory, and campaign on a platform that includes reining in the powers of the court. Israeli Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut pictured at the court in Jerusalem on May 4, 2020. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Pool) Netanyahu does have that criminal trial, set to start later this month, hanging heavily over his head. But those proceedings could run for ages — as underlined by the five-plus years from indictment through conviction through appeals in the case of one of his predecessors, Ehud Olmert. There have been rumors that Netanyahu might, when it comes time to “rotate” the premiership to Gantz, seek the post of president — a seven-year position, chosen by the 120 MKs, that affords wide-ranging immunity for its holder. Again, Netanyahu holds all the cards. As the veteran US-based Israel experts Dennis Ross and David Makovsky noted in a Times of Israel op-ed, therefore, the prime minister now has the opportunity to cement his legacy. He is constructing the coalition he wants, and can largely steer the policies he wants — certainly on the ultra-controversial issue of extending Israeli sovereignty to the settlements and other parts of the West Bank earmarked for Israel under the Trump Administration’s “Peace to Prosperity” vision. Will Netanyahu act on his repeated promise to indeed annex all the settlements and the Jordan Valley, with the endorsement of a uniquely supportive US administration, or will he hold back out of concern that this could shut the door on any future viable separation from the Palestinians, doom the peace treaty with Jordan, and deeply harm what have been Israel’s gradually warming relations with some other regional powers? Standing in front of a chart specifying circumstances in which Israel might have to reimpose restrictions if COVID-19 flares again, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces the easing of many lockdown restrictions, at a press conference in Jerusalem on May 4, 2020. (GPO) In his latest broadcast to the nation on Monday night, hailing Israel’s “great success” in battling COVID-19, Netanyahu said he responded so rapidly to news of the pandemic in part because he recalled a statistics class he took at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1970s, in which the lecturer highlighted the exponential spread of virus contagion. That lecture, he said, was “etched in my mind.” Confident he could lead an effective defense against the pandemic, Netanyahu placed himself front and center in overseeing Israel’s response. And his rival, Gantz — citing the combination of pandemic, and the threats to Israeli democracy posed by untrammeled right-wing rule — heeded Netanyahu’s call for an “emergency” unity coalition. With COVID-19 at bay for now, the emergency is receding, Gantz, predictably, has become somewhat marginalized, and Netanyahu is free to reap the benefits of both his leadership through the pandemic and his deft political maneuvering. No wonder Ya’alon was nearly apoplectic in that interview. It is truly Netanyahu’s Israel now. — We are hugely appreciative that so many of you have been joining the Community. and thus helping finance the work of our reporters and editors. (If you haven’t yet joined, please do! And tell your friends! All The Times of Israel content remains open to all readers. But if that content matters to you, do please support us — for as little as $6 a month.) Also, we’re happy to announce the launch of a brand new ToI Community Page — just for Community members — where you can keep up with exclusive Community content, Community news, special offers and ToI stats. Bookmark it! (Note that you must be signed into the Community on your browser/device in order to access the Community Page.) —   Exclusive Community LIVE webinar: COVID-19 and the Jewish World THURSDAY: Join Jewish World editor Amanda Borschel-Dan on Thursday, May 7 at 6PM Israel time/11AM ET for a candid conversation on COVID-19 and how it is playing out across the Jewish world. Amanda will also discuss the popular new ToI series Locked down? Open up to… which provides a terrific opportunity to discover Israeli and Jewish writers, musicians, and artists while you’re sheltering at home. Click the image above or the link below to join this webinar on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8617986155 ALSO ON THURSDAY: Join ToI Editor David Horovitz and Social Media Editor Sarah Tuttle-Singer on a Zoom session hosted by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. Thursday at 12:30 Central US/1:30 Eastern US. Details and registration here. And join Horovitz, again, later Thursday, in a talk with Rabbi David Wolpe hosted by American Friends of Magen David Adom. Thursday at 2 Central US/3 Eastern US. Details and registration here. —   ToI Community podcast preview — WhyWhyWhy! presents: Are We Getting Better? Noam Shuster was having her dream year on a fellowship at Harvard when the pandemic shut down her world. The Israeli comedian, 33, flew back home to her family home at a Jewish-Arab coexistence community near Jerusalem and, on the way, contracted what became a severe case of COVID-19. Listen to the story of her stint in the hospital followed by a stay in a “corona hotel” where she was shocked and awed to find a microcosm of Israel’s fractious society — Arabs, Jews, religious, secular, young and old — bound together in radical compassion by a shared cough. Noam Shuster (YouTube Screenshot) You can hear the WhyWhyWhy! podcast here, or by clicking on the image above. WhyWhyWhy! is hosted by ToI Ops and Blogs Editor Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron, and is a collaboration between The Times of Israel and TLV1 Podcasts. —   May perks for ToI Community members: 10% off any custom photo bencher at Let’s Bench. Discount Code: 10TOI 10% off from BeerBazaar (English). Discount Code: TOI-COMMUNITY 20% off Gur Inbal’s ceramic art at ArtSource. Indicate you’re a member of the Times of Israel Community to receive discount. A 15% discount at Judaica Webstore. Discount code: TOI_15 A $100 voucher for a Hebrew course from eTeacher. Be well! David Horovitz Founding Editor, The Times of Israel